Washington:

Former US president Donald Trump was indeed hit by an assassin’s bullet or a fragment of one, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Friday, putting to rest questions over the nature of the Republican candidate’s wounding at a campaign rally this month.

“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the FBI said in a statement.

Trump’s right ear was covered in blood on July 13 after he was injured during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

The FBI deemed the assault — in which a gunman fired eight bullets from outside the event’s security perimeter — an assassination attempt.

But FBI chief Christopher Wray told US lawmakers on Wednesday that there was some doubt as to “whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that, you know, that hit his ear.”

Following the new statement from the FBI — which Trump has long alleged is part of a “deep state” conspiring against him — the Republican posted on his Truth Social platform: “I assume that’s the best apology that we’ll get from Director Wray, but it is fully accepted!”

Earlier Friday, he posted a letter from his former White House doctor saying the wound was almost certainly due to a bullet.

“There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet,” wrote Ronny Jackson, now a Republican congressman from Texas, on Truth Social.

Two rally attendees were seriously wounded in the attack, and a 50-year-old Pennsylvania firefighter was shot dead, according to officials. The gunman was killed by a US Secret Service sniper.

Since the shooting, Trump has made the attack a key part of his campaign pitch, telling a crowd in Michigan that he “took a bullet for democracy.”

At the Republican National Convention where he was anointed the party’s nominee for president, Trump said he had “God on my side” as he described the attack.

And at Trump rallies, many of the former president’s supporters have taken to wearing bandages on their right ears, a reference to the attack.

On Thursday, Trump had also denied Wray’s comments and accused him of political partisanship.

“It was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel,” he said.

A New York Times investigation published Friday said “a detailed analysis of bullet trajectories, footage, photos and audio… strongly suggests Mr Trump was grazed by the first of eight bullets fired by the gunman.”

Trump’s campaign has not released any medical reports or statements from his current physician, instead quoting Jackson — a former White House physician who is a staunch political ally of the ex-president.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Former president Donald Trump was the target of an apparent assassination attempt on July 13 at a Pennsylvania rally, days before he was to accept the Republican nomination for a third time. A barrage of gunfire set off panic, and a bloodied Trump, who said he was shot in the ear, was surrounded by Secret Service and hurried to his SUV as he pumped his fist in a show of defiance.

In the coming days, much of the focus will shift to the shooter and security lapses. The shooter was not an attendee at the rally and was killed by U.S. Secret Service agents, according to two officials who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

The officials said the shooter was engaged by members of the U.S. Secret Service counterassault team. The heavily armed tactical team travels everywhere with the President and major party nominees and is meant to confront any active threats while other agents focus on safeguarding and evacuating the person at the center of protection.

Law enforcement recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene, according to a third person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

An AP analysis of more than a dozen videos and photos from the scene of the Trump rally, as well as satellite imagery of the site, shows the shooter was able to get astonishingly close to the stage where the former president was speaking. A video posted to social media and geolocated by the AP shows the body of a person wearing grey camouflage lying motionless on the roof of a building at AGR International Inc., a manufacturing plant just north of the Butler Farm Show grounds where Trump’s rally was held.

The roof where the person lay was less than 150 metres (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. For reference, 150 metres is the distance at which U.S. Army recruits must hit a scaled human-sized silhouette to qualify with the M-16 rifle.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees the Secret Service, said officials were engaged with the Biden and Trump campaigns and “taking every possible measure to ensure their safety and security.”

Trump was showing off a chart of border crossing numbers when the apparent shots began just after 6:10 p.m. It took two minutes from the moment of the first shot for Trump to be placed in a waiting SUV.

As Trump was talking, a popping sound was heard, and the former president put his right hand up to his right ear, as people in the stands behind him appeared to be shocked.

As the first pop rang out, Trump said, “Oh,” and grabbed his ear as two more pops could be heard and he crouched down. More shots were heard then.

Someone could be heard saying near the microphone at Trump’s lectern, “Get down, get down, get down, get down!” as agents tackled the former president. They piled atop him to shield him with their bodies, as is their training protocol, as other agents took up positions on stage to search for the threat.

Screams were heard in the crowd of several thousand people. A woman screamed louder than the rest. Afterward, voices were heard saying “shooter’s down” several times, before someone asked “are we good to move?” and “are we clear?” Then, someone ordered, “Let’s move.”

Trump could be heard on the video saying at least twice, “Let me get my shoes, let me get my shoes,” with another voice heard saying, “I’ve got you sir.”

Trump got to his feet moments later and could be seen reaching with his right hand toward his face. There appeared to be blood on his face. He then pumped his fist in the air and appeared to mouth the word “Fight” twice his crowd of supporters, prompting loud cheers and then chants of “USA. USA. USA.”

The crowd cheered as he got back up and pumped his fist.

His motorcade left the venue moments later. Video showed Trump turning back to the crowd and raising a fist right before he was put into a vehicle.

“Everybody went to their knees or their prone position, because we all knew, everyone becoming aware of the fact this was gunfire,” said Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, who was sitting to Trump’s right on stage.

As he saw Trump raise his fist, Mr. McCormick said, he looked over his shoulder and noticed someone had been hit while sitting in the bleachers behind the stage.

Eventually, first responders were able to carry the injured person out of a large crowd so he could get medical care, Mr. McCormick said.

Reporters covering the rally heard five or six shots ring out and many ducked for cover, hiding under tables. After the first two or three bangs, people in the crowd looked startled, but not panicked. An AP reporter at the scene reported the noise sounded like firecrackers at first or perhaps a car backfiring.

When it was clear the situation had been contained and that Trump would not be returning to speak, attendees started filing out of the venue. One man in an electric wheelchair got stuck on the field when his chair’s battery died. Others tried to help him move.

Police soon told the people remaining to leave the venue and Secret Service agents told reporters to get “out now. This is a live crime scene.”

Two firefighters from nearby Steubenville, Ohio, who were at the rally told the AP that they helped people who appeared injured and heard bullets hitting broadcast speakers.

“The bullets rattled around the grandstand, one hit the speaker tower and then chaos broke. We hit the ground and then the police converged into the grandstands, said Chris Takach.

“The first thing I heard is a couple of cracks,” Dave Sullivan said.

Mr. Sullivan said he saw one of the speakers get hit and bullets rattling and, “we hit the deck.”

He said once Secret Service and other authorities converged on Trump, he and Mr. Takach assisted two people who may have been shot in the grandstand and cleared a path to get them out of the way.

“Just a sad day for America,” Mr. Sullivan said.

“After we heard the shots got fired, then the hydraulic line was spraying all around, you could see the hydraulic fluid coming out of it. And then the speaker tower started to fall down,” Mr. Sullivan said. “Then we heard another shot that, you could hear, you knew something was, it was bullets. It wasn’t firecrackers.”

The perils of campaigning took on a new urgency after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in California in 1968, and again in 1972 when Arthur Bremer shot and seriously hurt George Wallace, who was running as an independent on a campaign platform that has sometimes been compared to Trump’s. That led to increased protection of candidates, even as the threats persisted, notably against Jesse Jackson in 1988 and Barack Obama in 2008.

Presidents, particularly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, have even greater layers of security. Trump is a rarity as both a former president and a current candidate.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the three men on Trump’s shortlist for vice president, all quickly sent out statements expressing concern for the former president, with Rubio sharing an image taken as Trump was escorted off stage with his fist in the air and a streak of blood on his face along with the words “God protected President Trump.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in a statement on X that he had been briefed on the situation and Pennsylvania state police were on hand at the rally site.

“Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable. It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States,” he said.

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks following the incident that occurred at a campaign rally for former U.S. President Donald Trump, in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, U.S., on July 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

U.S. President Joe Biden led the condemnation after his election rival Donald Trump was wounded in an apparent assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, in violence that also left a bystander dead.

Political leaders on both sides of the aisle slammed the attack minutes after the Republican candidate was rushed off stage by the Secret Service with blood running down his face.

“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country… We cannot be like this, we cannot condone this,” Biden told reporters in an emergency briefing at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware.

“The idea that there’s political violence, or violence in America like this, is just unheard of. It’s just not appropriate. Everybody, everybody must condemn it. Everybody,” Mr. Biden said.

He said he hoped to speak with Trump “shortly.”

Vice President Kamala Harris said on X: “We are praying for him, his family, and all those who have been injured and impacted by this senseless shooting.”

Mr. Biden’s former boss, Barack Obama, echoed his words in a statement, saying there was “absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy.”

“Although we don’t yet know exactly what happened, we should all be relieved that former President Trump wasn’t seriously hurt, and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics,” the Democrat said on X.

Former President George W. Bush condemned the “cowardly” attack.

“Laura and I are grateful that President Trump is safe following the cowardly attack on his life. And we commend the men and women of the Secret Service for their speedy response,” the Republican said in a statement.

From the Senate, top Democrat Chuck Schumer said he was “horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former President Trump is safe. Political violence has no place in our country.”

His Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell also posted: “Tonight, all Americans are grateful that President Trump appears to be fine after a despicable attack on a peaceful rally. Violence has no place in our politics.”

“As one whose family has been the victim of political violence, I know firsthand that political violence of any kind has no place in our society,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose husband was attacked in a home invasion in 2022, wrote, also on X.

“I thank God that former President Trump is safe. As we learn more details about this horrifying incident, let us pray that all those in attendance at the former President’s rally today are unharmed,” she continued.

‘I love you Dad’

Trump’s shocked children also took to social media.

“This is the fighter America needs!” son Eric Trump wrote above a photo of his father with blood running down his cheek, his fist in the air and an American flag waving in the background as the Secret Service rushed him from the stage.

Donald Trump Jr posted the same photo, writing on X: “He’ll never stop fighting to Save America.”

“I love you Dad, today and always,” daughter Ivanka posted on X, thanking supporters as well as the Secret Service for their “quick and decisive actions today.”

“I continue to pray for our country,” she said.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk said Saturday that he “fully” endorses Trump after the rally violence.

“I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Mr. Musk wrote on X, as he shared a video of Trump pumping his fist while being escorted away by Secret Service officials.

“Had it been less than a half inch to the right, he would not have survived,” the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, posted on X.

“Trump is truly blessed.”